LAHORE: A small number of protesting officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) led by additional chief secretary Omer Rasul met yet another embarrassment on the second consecutive day when most of the fraternity members rejected the idea of association elections.
Following strong reaction, the officers in protest mode called off the elections scheduled for Sunday taking a plea that the notice was too short to hold the activity. No further “protest” meeting has been called.
Most PAS officers, however, believed that the protesting officers were behaving in a reactionary manner and any move including association election could be seen as a move to protect former director-general of LDA Ahad Khan Cheema. “The PAS is a big community comprising honest, upright and straight forward officers and they can’t become part of a protest,” a PAS officer told Dawn.
Another senior PAS officer said the immediate protest by some bureaucrats with the support of political government had pitched bureaucracy in direct confrontation with the national anti-graft body and blown the case out of proportion. “If Ahad Cheema will come out clean, the NAB director-general should go home; but if the accused is held guilty, the moral authority of the ruling party politicians and PAS community will be eroded,” the officer observed.
An officer said some senior community members questioned the protesting leaders why they did not react when other officers were picked and humiliated – and that too without being involved in any corruption. He said Saaf Pani Project’s Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry was picked from his GOR-I residence and was not given a fair treatment. Sources claimed the Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT) inquiry led by Irfan Ali had exonerated him of any charge.When contacted, one of the protesting officers acknowledged that the association election idea had been dropped for now following strong reaction from the community and added that no call for any further meeting has been given. “We are waiting for instructions from our seniors with our fingers crossed,” he said.
ACS Omer Rasul, however, remained unavailable as he neither attended call nor responded to text message.
It is learnt that Chief Secretary Capt (retired) Zahid Saeed visited the residence of Ahad Cheema and expressed solidarity with his wife.
Earlier, Zahid Saeed informed a PAS officers’ delegation, which called on him, about the circumstances following the arrest of Ahad Cheema and measures being taken up by the government. The meeting discussed the matter of civil servants’ basic rights as well as transparency and impartiality in any accountability process.
The chief secretary directed all the PAS officers to return to their offices and perform duties diligently in line with the rules and regulations.
PMS: The Provincial Management Service (PMS) officers’ association did not becoming part of any activity that might violate their rules of service. The PMS Association leaders took this stand at a time when they were looking for a meeting with the chief secretary and ACS to resolve their issues..
Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2018
